Chapter Text
Darkness consumed them, frigid and unforgiving, prickling at their every sense as they came to.
Something was poking his face, repeatedly.
Hunter groaned, the face above him leaned forward to turn Hunter’s head this way and that. Pain swam through his vision, yet the figure above came into focus.
—
‘“That’s why I’m…Legally, changing my name to King Clawthorn! You’re stuck with me now Eda, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”’
—
‘What?’ Hunter was groggy and his mind still fuzzy. He didn’t know where Luz was, ‘What happened to Belos?’, or where Flapjack was. Didn't know if his sister and Palisman were alright. But standing above him, Hunter could’ve sworn, was, “King?”
Hunter startled and was only able to turn his aching head to the side, Luz was propped right beside him, bleeding sluggishly, but awake. And the, noticeably, larger being just chuckled good heartedly. “No, but he does get his good looks,” They flicked their mane-like fur and puffed up before continuing, “from me.”
He could hear Luz suck in a breath through her teeth, but before anyone could go any further, Hunter seized in agony. Something was crawling its way out of him, taking as much as it could out with it, stealing his breath away.
Hunter once again succumbed to the darkness below, but not before he heard a cry from Luz, “Belos!” And a deep throaty rumbling from above.
“Oh no you don’t, Parasite!” The Titan, ‘The Actual Titan!’ Luz repeated in her mind, breathless in awe, remembering the dire situation they’d just been pulled from an indeterminate amount of time ago.
Though a faint abhorrence pulsed under her skin, watching the thing that was Belos sloughed out of Hunter in a mad dash for the Titan. ‘King’s Dad, he had to be!’ That was a point she was still wrapping her head around, though it felt trivial to the dread that pierced her as Belos speared his way through the Titan’s Heart.
But she worried for naught, “This little trick of yours may have worked in the Demon Realm, but Here! Here you do not speak for me!” The Titan released an Earth shaking cry which shook the realm about them. If Luz wasn’t so sure that they Had to be dead already, she’d think her ears were bleeding from the resulting pressure.
For the second time in her life, Luz saw Belos explode, splattered, by a higher being. But this time it was different.
Belos was evicted from the Titan’s body with such might that Luz was surprised there was anything left of Belos at all. However, what was left, instead of flinging across the realm for all to see, was caught in a golden glow capturing the wriggling struggling sludge.
Luz breathed a sigh of relief, the Titan’s magic easing a warmth into her bones, but the breath caught in the back of her throat again.
A hole bore through the Titan’s torso steadily dripping at a snail’s pace was a dark, rich, blue blood.
“A piece of work that one is, am I right or am I right?” King’s Dad’s eyes seemed to smile down at her before he caught where she was looking, “Oh that,” He laughed nonchalantly as if to say ‘Hey I’m alright don’t look at that!’
“It’s no matter, I’m mostly dead anyways, I figure I don’t have much time for this realm even without this guy here.” The deity gestured towards where he held aloft the remains of Philip Wittebane, speaking of which, the Titan compressed the rotting bits together into a misshapen ball before summoning something from the depths. They placed the ball inside and it pulsed with an agitated magic before disappearing into the depths below.
“There. Now, that Leech will spend the rest of his eternal death at the bottom of the Boiling Sea.” Seeing Luz’s expression, they elaborated, “Of course he’s not Really there, but to him it will look and feel like it until he wastes away in starvation. A win-win really.” Luz cracked a weak smile, noticing how easily the Titan had diverted the subject.
Flapjack, who up until now had fallen into a dormant state to preserve his last bit of life, came awake in a frantic beat. He flailed his wings uselessly as he saw Hunter’s lifeless form, and instead tried to stagger over in an attempt to save His Witch.
He would’ve made it too, had a large clawed hand not gently lifted the Palisman away.
But the cardinal still drunkenly attempted to flit over to Hunter’s downed form from the Titan’s palm, each of their lifeblood’s escaping concerningly quicker than what was reassuring.
The deity ran a large claw over Flapjack’s scarlet plume, “No. Save your strength Palisman, you fade here, and your soul will be lost between any and every realm or time should I allow you to continue.” The Titan’s voice was somber, grave. King’s Dad shuffled closer to the downed children before kneeling.
“Allow me, I owe them -both of them- this much for having stayed the attempt which would have brought me and my people to our final end.” A clawed hand gently cupped the bird, more firmly this time, while the other softly rested on the young teenager’s forehead. “It is the Least I can do.” The voice was reassuring and tender.
A warm glow swallowed their forms and soon Hunter was awake and coughing up filth and mire, looking worn still but better than he had in weeks. And Flapjack too was doing far better, though distinct cracks still marred his tiny bird form, he flew straight and without burden for his witch.
Luz tried to grin wide, but she was still in pain herself. Though the Titan noticed immediately, and extended a hand for her as well.
Soon the static air filled her lungs completely just as smooth as it did the wind back home, and the searing heat of her arm faded into a faint throbbing while her body felt lighter than it had in a long while.
Luz sat straighter, more awake and feeling better than ever now. Immediately, she practically flew in her way to tackle Hunter in a hug.
“Hunter! You’re ok, Oh Titan, don’t you ever scare me like that again!” Hunter settled into the embrace with just as much, if not more vigor.
—
‘“…You’re a Titan King…”’
—
Hunter paled, “Oh, me!” The voice broke in between them, quite amused. “It’s nice to meet you all, especially You, Luz the Human.”
Hunter stiffened rather comically, remembering abruptly who they were with, and scrambled to get up. To bow, or kneel, or grovel. Something along those lines, but in his hurry to do one he performed an awkward combination of each.
Though the Titan, ‘The Titan!’, rushed to reassure them, ‘Them!’. “Oh! No, no, no. There is no need for all that. Please sit down, I may have healed what I could right now, but you’re still injured.” They placed a large hand over Hunter's head, and his ears burned in embarrassment, he plopped back down beside Luz.
Luz, who definitely didn’t just remember the manners her Mamí tried to instill in her, spoke up. “Thank you for that by the way, really. I don’t know what we would’ve done if you hadn’t rescued us.” She was still rattled at the implications of what could’ve happened. Luz rested a steadying hand over her unhatched Palisman, making sure they were safe.
Luz hadn’t been able to get a good look of The Titan earlier, what with everything that was going on and the state they were in, but now that she could…
The Titan was a lot more… goofy looking than she imagined, not to mention a Lot Smaller.
The Titan had great big wings, though they were ragged and stone-looking, and wore pajama pants emblazoned with glyphs. Not to mention the shirt he was wearing was a, now partially ruined, ‘Bad Girls Coven’ shirt and overtop that was a well loved chocolate brown bathrobe. It was a bit disconcerting after all she’d heard about him in the Demon Realm.
Unnoticed to all, down below, with each drop of lapis blood into the shadowy fluid sloshing about their feet, a ripple of power shook the very fabric of the realm. Destabilizing the veils between reality…
Hunter found his voice after a minute, appreciating the bird Palisman’s presence. “An- and you’re Really-?” Hunter didn’t finish, his voice cracked and he averted his gaze suddenly more nervous than he remembered in recent history.
“The Boiling Isles?” He tilted his head in irony, and the worm-like thing attached to his right eye wiggled disturbingly. “It’s not that shocking, is it?” From the tone of his voice they could just tell he was grinning.
Luz piped up, she understood abstractly who he was, but her mind was still struggling to click the pieces together after their ordeal.
“But, you can’t actually be that Titan right? That Titan is all…” She made a vague gesture across All of them, not sure how to put it politely, and not wishing to be rude.
The Titan before her seemed to understand the unasked question, and took no offense, “Dead looking?” A questioning, but patient, expression crossed his visage.
Luz could feel her breath shortening as the implications hit her, “But you’re not, I mean earlier you said-!” Suddenly she could recall, clearer, the comments The Titan had made earlier when she’d been out of it.
A cold, that she hadn’t noticed at some point having disappeared, sunk its fangs into her flesh and withered its way down to her bones. “Does that mean we’re-!” Luz couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought, alarm coursing through her veins. She could see the trepidation crawl across Hunter’s face too.
The despair tried to tug them deeper under, the hopelessness which attempted to infect them. The shadows clawed higher.
“Oh no! Let’s not do that! Here, this way.” He had scooped them up by their clothes and led the little contingent towards a miraculously smooth section in the cliff side to support them.
“If you go under without a portal, you guys really will be dead looking. You were lucky I had reached you when I did, earlier, you were nearly too far gone.” His countenance was serious, and tone firm. Then he lightened up considerably, “So hey! Let’s not think about that. We have much to speak about, and too little time.”
“And you’re,” Luz broke off but Hunter picked up her line of thought, “King’s dad?” The two of them tentatively settled against each other.
Suddenly the Titans scratched the back of his skull, bashful, “Well, I think King put it best once, ‘I am both King and Queen, best of both things.’ But ‘Dad’ works fine.” His welcoming arms lifted in a half shrug, before tucking away his hands in his pockets.
Curiously Hunter glanced around the place they’d been stuck in the last several weeks now, before gazing questioningly up to the Titan, “What is this place?” He asked in a whisper of not quite wonder and deep exhaustion.
The looming being merely hummed, “This is, The Space In Between...” King’s Dad made a grandiose gesture before muttering, “…In between a lot of places.” Though they barely caught it.
Luz brightened briefly, “I was right!” She laughed in astonishment, the Titan gave her an indulgent smile.
“And, I’ve been and I’ve been stuck here for quite some time.” His voice didn’t quite pitch down in disappointment but it was a near thing, the longing that tainted it clear as crystal. “But, at least I can keep an eye on my child… and those who’ve been kind to him.” The Titan had summoned a cube floating past to demonstrate for them, and Hunter felt an odd fascination for how they had manipulated its magic. Though, Hunter’s fingers went numb at the unsaid accusation and his sister’s gloomy demeanor clouded her again.
Hunter swore to himself that if he’d ever see that King Clawthorn again, he’d treat King with more respect. Especially with how the little Titan had sacrificed himself to save them.
It seemed his sister could understand the hidden allegation too, as she straightened from where they leaned against each other and the wall, “But I’m not so kind…” It wasn’t something Hunter would ever attribute to Luz, and he wanted to refute, but he let her say her piece. Flapjack made a derisive tweet, as if the little Palisman might be able to dissuade Luz from that line of thinking with his presence alone.
Her eyes were wide and glistening, “When I saw the Collector fly up to Belos, I hoped with all my heart I would see Them blast him away and…” Luz sighed then sagged, guilt prickling her spine, she couldn’t look at Hunter.
“Luz…” Hunter placed an understanding hand on her good shoulder. He wouldn’t dispute her, he had felt the same way that day.
A near silence sustained for a beat, only the faint hum and irritating ‘drip ; plop’ that sounded distantly, before, “I can relate,” The Titan’s brass was quiet, yet Hunter startled like a caught deer.
“I was willing to do anything to keep my kid safe.” Their one eyed gaze cast off into the perpetual distance, lost in thoughts of millennia past. But Hunter scanned their face with fervor, trying to catalogue every truth. Regret and something like shame shadowed their eyes, “But I attacked the wrong person, I dragged the Collector down here for Nothing.”
This brought the adolescent’s thoughts to a halt. Several portions of that statement had just spawned dozens more questions. “What?” Had escaped Hunter from under his breath, and the Titan seemed to come to a realization.
“Ah, you wouldn’t know.” He took a deep breath and let it out agonizingly slow, “Way back when, many -tens of thousands, it has to be by now- years ago we Titans roamed the planet and beyond amongst other beings. Each of us played our parts in creation, but the Archivists -The Collector’s People- hailed from the stars watching the worlds below and weaving the ones above.”
Absently, the Titan gazed off into the distance at something that wasn’t there anymore. ‘Or perhaps it was?’ A little voice in Hunter’s mind suggested, after all, not fifteen minutes ago the Titan had used this place’s magic to show them the past already.
The Titan’s voice was captivating, a bright timber that brought his story to life before their minds' eye. “We were a peaceful race, the Titans, though we have power to rival the stars beyond, for we shaped the land molding realities through our communities. Then when we pass, our bodies continue to give life to the world about us.” He painted a grand portraiture of the Deities and people the Titans once were.
At this point even Flapjack resolved to behave statuesque in a nest of Hunter’s blond mane of hair. “We welcomed the Archivists, the Collector, when they came. Thrilled to meet someone of equal measure to us, their children and ours could play and roughhouse to their hearts content without worry.” Regret and a fond nostalgia tinged the far fringes of the Titan’s words in equal measure.
Then the wounded beings’ expression hardened, “But one day, a Titan -a child- went missing, then one by one our kind kept going missing. It was always our youngest to go first, all of whom had come to know the Collector.” Pain and anger warred its way over his aged skull. The face of which made Hunter shrink in on himself. Luz clasped a kind hand over her brother’s wrist without a word.
The tale King’s dad spun took on a grave tone, paying them no mind from where they listened enraptured completely. “The elder of us Titans figured it was the Archivist race who were hunting down and killing our children.”
The Titan squeezed shut his eyes, or made the closest approximation of such the best he could. “The battle from there was lengthy and blood-ridden. One after another we went, but not without a fight.” He drew a shaky breath before continuing, steadier than they’d been before.
They had at some point started to gesticulate with his clawed hands, before now, he clenched his hands tight. His fists shook with the effort. “Soon enough, I was the last of us. Just me and my egg. At that point in time, I had been convinced it was the Collector’s doing, that they had brought these terrible events upon us.” The Titan’s voice was slick with emotions before a determined and self satisfied set slid over his spine.
“I hid King away and carved him an army of guardians should he be found anyways.” Luz remembered quite vividly the trip it had been visiting there.
A deep, self-loathing, guilt drowned the Titan’s tone, “Then, I went straight after the Collector in a grief-fueled rage. The rest of the Archivists, cowards that they were, fled. It should have been my first sign,” Questions upon questions bubbled impatiently under Luz’s skin, but she continued to hold her tongue for the time being.
“They left the Collector behind, you see…” Hunter felt an unusual sympathy for the child of the stars. He knew exactly what that felt like. Luz, too, was finding it harder and harder to rebuke the Collector after finding out the circumstances the otherworldly child had to live through.
The Titan’s arm waved up high above them. Floating broken in the not-quite sky was the fractured remains of what was once a sphere of some kind. It was tiny, not much bigger than an arms’ length in diameter. “I captured them, locked them away and dragged them down here but not before I foolishly got myself trapped down here too.” The kids looked to and from the Titan to the prison and back, horror frothing to the surface.
Luz gaped, and went to confront the Titan but was silenced by a pained look as he shook his head. “The Collector was an innocent, naught but a child caught in the middle of an adult’s war. My transgressions led to retaliation via the scorched air which now breathes life onto my corpse, through no fault of their own.” His gaze became clouded with the regrets of his past before clearing with an unreadable glint to his eyes.
He wasn’t done, “They still are just a child, still innocent. The Collector doesn’t understand that what they’re doing right now is wrong, that it’s harmful to the lives around them.” The Titan reached to hold each of their hands in his own large paws to look them in the eyes earnestly, the fact that they were solid once more went unnoted.
“They never had the need to learn to regulate themselves around much more fragile persons.” King’s Dad was trying so very desperately to make them see the anguish and destruction the Collector wrought wasn’t intentional. To that child, it was all a game, and damage that wasn’t perceived to have lasting effects. Even when, in reality, it did.
The Titan sighed, releasing them from his soft hold. “And they still have much to learn, yet…” He shook himself from the abstraction which had consumed his thoughts, and smiled down at them.
“But that’s enough of that, I’ve spoken too long and still have much to get through.” Hunter lost himself to thought, before going to tug on the Titan’s sleeve though he caught the action and aborted when he saw the Titan look at him in curious askance.
“But, doesn’t…-“ Hunter struggled to find his voice, still stuck on one portion of the Titan’s story. “Does that make us as bad as Belos…?” He didn’t dare hope to hear the opposite and couldn’t hold the Titan’s peering look for more than a few seconds. The ceaseless drip, drip, dripping echoed raucously in his ears.
Right now he didn’t much care that he and Luz had already gone over this topic before, especially when he had the literal soul of The Isles conscious to answer him honestly. If there was one person who existed that would answer him genuinely, Hunter would bet the several millennia old deity who had likely seen and ‘lived’ by his every life decisions, would be it.
“What?” The Titan had made a disjointed chortle, like he couldn’t believe what absurdity he was hearing. “Have you somehow managed to smuggle a pint of Eda’s homemade apple blood and down it before I could see?” Hunter’s head snapped up and Luz beside him gawked, and the optimistic set to her shoulders tentatively began to return as the Titan continued.
Hunter himself couldn’t help but feel infected by their restored confidence.
Though, Luz’s brows furrowed, “It’s just, Belos was always preaching about saving Humanity.” Luz clutched at her arms, picking up Hunter’s line of thought, but let go at the sharp throb, “And we’re over here, saying we want to save our families.” Flapjack twittered in concern for her, and fluttered from Hunter’s head to peck at her knees lightly. She took a moment to brush the Palisman off, not unkindly, and gave him back to his Witch.
Hunter’s little sister then looked pleadingly up to the Titan, her eyes welling up and her voice raising in a warble. “But-! But aren’t those the same thing? Don’t those feelings come from the same place?” She threw her arms up in exasperation.
The Titan’s wore a face of understanding, “You assume Belos’ goal comes from a genuine place,” King’s Dad set a heavy hand to rest upon each of them, and looked at them with such intense sincerity. “But, that man hadn’t cared about anything but his need to be the hero in his own delusion. And because of that, he fears what he can’t control.” With this he gave them both a significant stare.
Hunter understood. “And now with him gone,” He began hesitantly, “He can never use that fear to win, can he?” In his chest an ember of hope was stoked into a blooming flame. Belos was gone, for good this time.
A soundless tremor encompassed the realm, unnoticed, beating in time with an unseen heart.
“Precisely,” A proud aura wrapped around them, gently soothing them and encouraging their optimism. “Now, I’ll be sending you back.” The Titan stated abruptly.
“Wait, wait, wait! What?” Hunter jerked back in surprise, oblivious to Luz’s flabbergasted, “Huh?!”
“Yes, I think it’s high time I send you home, don’t you think?” The Titan of the Boiling Isles just tilted his head curiously. Pretending, for all intents and purposes, that he didn’t understand from where their bafflement originated.
“Wait! You’re helping us get out? I thought you were trapped here like us?” Bewildered, Luz challenged the Titan. Hunter didn’t think he’d stop her even if he wanted to.
The Titan breathed a sad chuckle, glancing down at his wound, “Oh, I may be stuck here, but if it takes me the last of what time I have left to make way for you kids to make a better world for my child… I’d say I’d be well worth it.” He put on a brave face for them, “Besides, I don’t think there’s much of a body left for me to return to if I wanted to.” His face was pained but resolute.
The Titan shook his furry mane, “No. New, wonderous, life has sprung from whence I had fallen. They will live for me where I cannot any longer.” He shuffled a few paces away, still looking upon them fondly.
“Besides,” His voice became cheery as he snapped his claws, “I trust you kids to do me justice, especially with that magic of yours.” The Titan gave them a cheeky wink, paying no mind to Luz gaping and Hunter faint with the weight of expectation settling on them. “You already helped King so much.”
The Titan had stated it with such certainty as if there was no greater truth in all the realms.
He extended a hand to each of them, “So how about you finally let me use my last bit of life to help you?”
Luz was speechless, and she was sure Hunter was on the verge disassociating from the revelation. Only Flapjack got out a single dumbfounded chirp.
“Are you really sure, you want to do this,” Luz swallowed thickly, not looking away from the Titan’s claws for a second, “For us?”
“Well, you’re the ones here, and for all your past faults,” here his eye flicked over Hunter before continuing, “You seem like a good pair of Witches. But, I can’t do anything for you unless you choose to accept it.”
Hunter swallowed thickly; Flapjack gingerly nuzzled him.
“So the question is, will you choose yourselves?” The Titan’s voice was expectant but endlessly patient too. Just as they were about to place their disbelieving hands in waiting claws, the Titan jolted as if realizing something. “Oh wait! Before I forget…!”
He took a moment to dig through his bathrobe and, oddly enough, pulled out two oblong vials. Though most surprisingly, he then took each bottle and pressed it tightly against his gaping wound with a sharp wince and painstakingly filled it to the brim with his blue blood and stoppering it and repeating the process with the second one.
Dumbfounded they pocketed the vials when the Titan nonchalantly pressed them into their palms. “I hear you’re going to need some of this if you want to rebuild a permanent portal between realms.” The fluffy deity stuck his arms out once again to make his offer, “and a second one just in case.” He shared with Hunter, as if it were an inside joke and not literal Titan’s Blood.
This time he didn’t retract when they went to take his hand.
A golden sheen had taken on the realm, but Hunter realized it was just the power of the Titan encircling them in a transparent magic sphere in which they began to float.
Luz quickly lost her balance, “Whoa-! Wait, what about…-!” Hunter steadied her the best he could.
“Eda the Owl Lady?” The Titan’s head tilted inquisitively, “Send her my regards, big fan.” He gave them a small wave.
Luz rocked them forward harshly, ignoring Hunter’s cry and Flapjack’s startled chirp. “No, King! What about King? Don’t you want to say something to him?”
The Titan took a moment to think before whispering something Hunter didn’t catch into Luz’s ear. To which she chuckled lightly, wiping off a tear, “Oh. He’ll Love that.” Hunter grasped his little sister by the arms and settled her to sit beside him, she didn’t resist this time.
Then, for what had to have been the third time that hour, Hunter could feel his breath catch. For in that brief moment of inattention, somehow the Titan had reverted into his true form that of which reflected the Isles.
They stared uncomprehendingly at the otherworldly being. Stared as said being sunk rapidly below the ebony muck.
For a moment, they seemed to float higher above everything in the realm. Before, with a violent shudder, they too began to descend, protected as they were in the last remnants of the great Titan’s power.
Darkness consumed them, yet was combated by the vibrant radiant magic surrounding them.
However, soon the magical glyphs that lined the glowing shield were overtaken by a cerulean luminescence.
Before absolute darkness engulfed them at last.
—
A lone golden eye stared from a distance, ‘Oh. That wasn’t supposed to happen…’ But there was nothing for it now, they would be long gone before they’d be able to do anything… They would not awaken again.
—
The faint pitter patter of rain was the first thing to come to her when she awoke in darkness, pain still pulsing down from her shoulder, letterman grudgby jacket missing…eyes glowing a faint amber… and a vial heavy in her pocket.
—
The rustling of the gentle leaves brushed against him in a familiar dancing caress. He awoke with the resolute goal to find his partner once more, he’d done it before. This time, he knew, he carried with him a bright slumbering life.
—
He awoke to a desolate silence surrounded by the cold comfort of soft linens. A cold vial resting on his chest, he grasped it absently. Depressing stone closed in on him from every side, his head throbbed, he squeezed shut his amber eyes. He needed to leave, now.
—
In the place Beyond and In Between, an unseen balance shifted.